Russian Dirge: Where Are Snows of Yesteryear?
MOSCOW, Dec. 11— Even for Russians, whose character depends famously on a shared ability to endure punishment that would devastate a weaker nation, this has been a particularly trying year. It started with a war in Chechnya that seemed as if it would never end. Then there was a pivotal presidential election that split the country in painful ways. Those things happen, though. And Russians, who routinely respond to the question ”How are you?” with the single word, ”Nothing,” can handle them. What doesn’t happen, however — at least not in the last century or two and possibly never before — is a prolonged warm spell in a Russian winter season. There has been no snow in Moscow at all this season, a fact so depressing to average Muscovites that they have trouble even speaking about it. ”It’s wrong,” said Vyacheslav Sesoyev, 65, the proprietor of a central Moscow sporting goods store. ”It’s not Russia if it doesn’t snow. In the old days we would have thought the C.I.A. did it. The la
